Free Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler Page B

you have time.”
    “I don’t.” A lot of things I wouldn’t like could happen to me at one of their meetings.
    “Barbara, come. Really, if you don’t there’s going to be trouble.”
    “There’ll be trouble no matter what. But I didn’t know it was so close. Thanks for the warning.” So they were finally getting worried enough about what I was doing to think about forcing me back to the fold.
    She looked around at my so-called house and listened to the kids screaming outside. “What is it you’re so willing to fight for? What do you have here that you couldn’t have more of with us?”
    “Valeries.”
    “I’ve told you before, Barbara, bring the children. We want them too.”
    “Do you? Are you sure? These are the same kids you wouldn’t even consider before I left. You took one look into them and you couldn’t get out fast enough.”
    “All right, we were wrong. You’re the childfinder and we should have listened. Come back now and we will listen.”
    “I don’t need you any more.” The way they hadn’t needed me before I started finding pre-psi kids. I know a lot about them, about the way they feel. The kind of things normal people can only guess about each other.
    Silence for a moment. As silent as my court gets, anyway.
    “So the others are right. You’re forming an opposing organization.”
    “We won’t oppose you unless we have to.”
    “A segregated black-only group … Don’t you see, you’re setting yourself up for the same troubles that plague the normals.”
    “No. Until you get another childfinder, I don’t think they’ll be quite the same. More like reversed.” I almost said, “How does it feel to be on the downside for a change.” Almost. And to one of the new people—the next step for mankind.
    Honest to God, that’s the way they talked when I was with them. They had everything they needed then. Somebody to pull them all together—all the ones who had managed to mature on their own. The ones who had been solitary misfits, human trash, until they got together. I was one of them. I know just how low they were before someone with the talent to reach out and call them together matured. That led to the organization and the organization led me to find out that I hadn’t been as mature as I thought. Led me to discover that I was the other thing they needed. Somebody who could recognize normal-appearing kids who had psi potential before they got too old and the potential in them died from lack of use. Originally the organization was a group of exceptions. Most pre-psi kids don’t mature without help. That’s why the organization had stayed the same size since the day I left it.
    Eve was saying, “Sooner or later we’re bound to get another childfinder.”
    That was true. Except that I was likely to see their childfinder before they did. I’d seen two white potential ones so far. I hate to hurt kids. I mean it. My specialty is helping them. But I crippled those two for good. The best they can hope for now—if they knew enough to hope—is to be normal with traces of psionic ability.
    “Barbara.” There was a change in Eve’s voice that made me look at her. “I didn’t want to say this, but … well, you can’t watch all the kids you’ve collected all the time. Especially since you’re still out looking for new ones. We would hate to do anything,but …”
    They wouldn’t hate it. And they wouldn’t be careful. Where I’d cripple kids painlessly, they would kill them. After all that build-up about the organization wanting them.
    “Don’t come after my kids, Eve.”
    “Do you think I’d want to? Do you think it was my idea? You’re the one who won’t listen to reason. …”
    “Don’t come after my kids! You’ll lose a lot more than you bargain for if you do. You’d be surprised how fast some of them are growing up, and they know a lot more about you than you know about them.”
    She got mad then and tried one of her organization tricks. Swiping at me.